2017 PS Film Festival

Austrian Jewish intellectual Stefan Zweig, one of the most read German-language writers of his time, left his homeland with the rise of Hitler. This all too relevant, smartly structured film focuses on Zweig’s years in exile, explored in five chapters and an epilogue. “Serious emotional wallop.” The Hollywood Reporter.

Schedule

film synopsis

Austrian Jewish intellectual Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), one of the most read German-language writers of his time, left his homeland with the rise of Hitler and spent years in exile, traveling between Buenos Aires, New York and Brazil.

Actress-turned-director Maria Schrader (the radiant star of Aimée & Jaguar) tells the story of those exile years in five chapters and an epilogue, crafting an exquisite second feature. She focuses on Zweig's struggles to find the right stance towards events in Nazi Germany, while searching for a home in the New World.

"What makes the work of Schrader and co-screenwriter Jan Schomburg psychologically insightful and also pack a serious emotional wallop is their smart choice to focus on a handful of specific moments, rather than opting for a more traditional bio-drama structure that tries to cram in a much larger chronology ... Much of the feature's quietly accumulated emotional power derives from the fact that viewers have to connect some of the dots themselves." Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter